Round 20 - Box Hill Hawks v Footscray Bulldogs - Saturday 9 August 2025 • 2:05 PM

[Eastdog]

A few photos I took at the game today:

[jazzadogs]

I headed down today and had a lovely afternoon standing on the hill in the sun.

Was impressed by Sellwood, although it was hard to tell him and Walker apart. The main difference was the fact that Walker cannot kick the ball. 20 game rule and all that...but his ball drop is too high and means he is incredibly unreliable by foot. We think he's on an 18 month contract don't we? Hopefully the coaches can help him fix it because he's got some other good traits.

Best game I've ever seen Croft play, but admittedly haven't seen many of his games at all. He crashed some packs and worked hard to bring the ball to ground, took some good marks and kicked well. My favourite play was in the last quarter when he was in the ruck - won the tap, roved it, kicked it forward, then crumbed that contest at speed, gathered the ball and forced a ball-up.

Jaques continues to impress me - he'll play plenty of AFL games next year after another pre season of bulking up and getting fitter. Very clever and skilful player.

On the other side, I was disappointed with Liam Jones (dropped some marks he would usually take, anticipation seemed a step off his usual high standard - I can see why he's missing out on games) and Arty (just not involved enough, doesn't look fit enough). Dolan had good moments without consistency, and Hynes had even less moments but they were nice.

Tony Scott again showed that he's a very good VFL player, as did Gardner and Coffield. I'm not in any rush to promote the latter two.

Smith got torched by Reeves in the battle of the long-necked turtle rucks. Reeves was just too tall.

[GVGjr]

How did Jai Serong go for Box Hill? I've got some Hawks mates who have huge wraps on him, and he is not going to get many chances in the seniors with Sicily, Barass and Battle ahead of him. Not sure of his contract status but would he be worth looking at?

He impressed. Good in the air and with ground ball contests.

[azabob]

Hopefully Dolan gets a full pre season, along with Jaques and Hynes and push to play 15 plus games in 2026. If that happens our mid sized player depth starts looking ok.

[ledge]

Enjoyed this post-Thx Ledge. I’m a big Billy Crofts fan. Very reliable, no fuss, tough player who is pretty skilful too.

he is the old school hard nut in and under and sadly is not what AFL wants anymore , it’s all about speed.
He is awesome with reading the play and disposal too. Gets a lot of it and has no doubt won us a few games .
Melton bloods boy so I keep an eye.

[josie]

he is the old school hard nut in and under and sadly is not what AFL wants anymore , it’s all about speed.
He is awesome with reading the play and disposal too. Gets a lot of it and has no doubt won us a few games .
Melton bloods boy so I keep an eye.

Yes, speed is king nowadays. He is great to watch. Lays a damn good tackle too.

[doggies ftw]

Didn’t watch yesterday but will watch the replay during the week hopefully. Croft stats look great, really glad the switch has kinda flicked for him in recent weeks. I really really like his attributes, he’s perfect for the support role next to Naught & Darc. Another tall that can cover ground, tackle and impact at ground level and go through the ruck? Yes please.